This study examined how race and ethnicity inform college friendships of women of color and sought to determine how these two variables altered the learning characteristics of such relationships. The study, at a predominantly white college campus, found these relationships consistent with the sociological definition of intentional communities and also found that such friendship communities fostered both integration and separation, relationships which are interdependent and mutually associated for women of color. It suggested that women of color, unlike their white peers, judge pedagogy and classroom climate not by the barometer of gender but rather by the barometer of race and ethnicity. Of the 41 African-American, Asian-American, and Latinas in the study, 87 percent chose a primary female friend of the same race and/or ethnicity. They used female friendships to: (1) develop a positive ethnic and/or racial self-image, (2) to engage in noncombative and noneducative "race talk" as a respite from racial and/or ethnic hypersensitivity and hostility, (3) to give and receive academic encouragement and support, and (4) to develop a gendered understanding of self within their ethnic and/or racial identifies. The same sororial relationships were also used to separate in order to integrate to judge their integration into the larger campus community. (Contains 15 references.) (DB)